Tag Archives: public space

Pedestrian improvements approved at new Whole Foods location

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Pedestrian Plaza in front of Whole Foods at 2001 Market Street (credit: Prado Group)

Pedestrian Plaza in front of Whole Foods at 2001 Market Street (credit: Prado Group)

Earlier this month, the Planning Commission approved a plan that should help expand pedestrian safety and mobility around the new Whole Foods / apartment complex location at 2001 Market Street. The plan includes bulb-outs at crosswalk intersections, a pedestrian refuge for the giant crosswalk along Market crossing Dolores, special paving on Dolores near Market, raised sidewalks crossing Clinton Park, and greenery with a few benches for seating in the expanded entrance area. The improvements also extend down to 14th Street with bulb-outs on each corner. The developer of the new grocery and housing location has agreed to pay for the pedestrian improvements in lieu of $510,000 in impact fees, according to SF Streets Blog.

The neighborhood group Dolores United expressed support for the plan while the Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association wanted the bulb-outs at Market Street shrunk to avoid losing a lane of traffic. According to SF Streets, the original plan called for one lane of traffic on each side all the way down Dolores to 14th Street, but the approved plan calls for single lanes only within 60′ – 80′ of the intersection with Market.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, who helped champion the projects approval, said that he is looking forward to seeing the underutilized space become a more attractive place for pedestrians.

Market and Dolores Pedestrian Improvement Plans (credit: CurbedSF)

Market and Dolores Pedestrian Improvement Plans (credit: CurbedSF)

via SF Streets

Castro Nudist Trial Arrested Pre Wiener Ban Ends in Acquittal

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Nude Dude at Jane Warner Plaza-NOT Richard Serra

Nude Dude at Jane Warner Plaza-NOT Richard Serra

The three-day trial of 48-year-old Richard Serra, a self-described ‘novice’ naturist, arrested amidst his first ever public disrobing for alleged public masturbation was found ‘not guilty’ after a single day of deliberation by a jury of his peers.

It all started on a brisk, but sunny, pre current nudity ban November day in 2012, when Mr. Serra decided to join the embattled SF nudist movement in the Castro for a day of letting it all hang out.

According to court records Mr Serra told jurors, “He’d never done anything like that before but felt strongly about the cause and the need to stand up for individual freedom.”

Arriving at Jane Warner Plaza determined to take part he suddenly was hit with a dose of serious pee shy and opted instead of fully disrobing to just pull down his pants to his ankles and lift his tank top up a bit above his waist line. He wanted to hide some scars he had on his mid-drift that made him self-conscience.

3 Ring Binder Rings-NOT the DIY ones Mr. Serra employed on that fateful day.

3 Ring Binder Rings-NOT the DIY ones Mr. Serra employed on that fateful day.

Trying his best to fit in with his fellows nudist, who he’d observed on other prior Plaza visits sporting elaborate cock rings, Mr. Serra brought along a steel ring he’d removed from a three-ring binder-like your fave, sticker embossed, 7th grade Trapper Keeper-which he then employed as his own DIY cock-ring. Admittedly things went kind of south from there on out.

 

According to the Public Defender’s Office:

He attached it to his shirt and looped it around his penis to ensure his scars were covered. Sierra stood in front of Citibank on Castro Street, his genitals exposed. Meanwhile, a 53-year-old man walking his dog saw Sierra arranging his genitals and flagged down two police officers on bicycles. The dog walker reported that Sierra appeared to be masturbating with personal lubricant.

SFPD confronted Mr. Serra who explained he was just finding his way with the whole nudity thing and was too self-conscious to be fully naked like the other street roaming, free spirited, naked guys. The officers also noted he’d been spotted with a tube of what appeared to be masturbation lubricant which he generously applied to his kibble and bits. Nonplussed with Mr. Serra’s story the officers had heard enough and arrested him for indecent exposure.

Is anyone else shaking their heads by now?

During the trial it came out the lube tube was medicinal, $100 bucks-a-pop, eczema cream. Mr. Serra has a bit of an issue he battles with that dreaded ailment and was applying it to his affected nether region when the observant citizen who’d made the initial complaint sauntered by on his morning constitutional.

Here Comes The JudgeWhen the judge asked for the verdict to be read and ‘not guilty’ echoed in the chambers, Sierra reportedly wept with relief.

Who wouldn’t? If he’d been found guilty he faced a maximum of one year in jail and the added humiliation of registering as a sex offender-which like a incurable case of herpes-follows you around for LIFE.

Let’s hope Mr. Serra is undaunted in his wish to pursue personal body freedom. I personally think he could do with a nudity etiquette sponsor who’d show him how the naked game works avoiding all the drama not to mention the huge amounts of wasted, SF tax payer dollars.

Final Countdown to No More Pants Down-Nudity Ban to Start Feb. 1

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No Public Nudity

In less than two weeks the San Francisco law banning public nudity-unless for specific purposes or events-takes effect on February 1st.

While many who back the law, District Eight Supe Scott Wiener for example who authored the new City code, hail this as a step in the right direction for the community others find San Francisco’s turn toward puritanical modesty a sad state of affairs for a town viewed by most as the beacon of liberal thinking and actions in America.

From the Castro Nude In, Oct. 2012-sign outlines what the pro nudist camp demanded.

From the Castro Nude In, Oct. 2012-sign outlines what the pro nudist camp demanded.

The ‘Nude Issue’ has continued to be fodder of national and international story lines. Story lines pop with titillation as pundits, journalists and late night talk show hosts bandied about the furor SF’s nude cause celebre has had, it’s heated ‘for’ or ‘against’ public debates, protests and finally the subsequent law it’s produced.

Covering up this story seems hard to do. The SF, LGBT newspaper of note, Bay Area Reporter, who published a strong editorial supporting Mr. Wiener’s plan for a ban revisited the issue posting an informal, Facebook, poll on Thursday asking what readers thought. The results: 4 to 1 in favor of nudity and having citizen’s let it all hang out.

B.A.R. Poll on Nudity Jan. 2013

Federal Judge Edward Chen is expected to rule soon on a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the City’s nudity ban. Chen could pick up the pace on things because if he dismisses the motion, there may be an appeal, and then this issue could drag on in the courts costing the taxpayers of the City big bucks defending the new law.

The basis for the suit brought by four nude activists and presented by their talented legal rep, Christina DiEdoardo, a criminal defense attorney, is that their first amendment rights will be violated if the ban stands.

The crux of that suit being the law inhibits people’s right to be ‘expressive’. Where the rub in the argument stands is the Supreme Court has already denied that as relative in an earlier case. If nudist were marching in a political context that’s being ‘expressive’.

Sitting with their junk in the sun at the Castro’s Jane Warner Plaza ‘expressive’? A stretch of the legal interpretation of the law that as yet no legal precedents supports.

The Castro Biscuit took a stand in our own editorial supporting the right of San Franciscan’s to be naked which has been widely shared and read. We still believe its the right course for our community to allow public nudity as long as it’s not lewd.

However, based on the law and it’s parameters, we believe the new nudity ban law will be allowed to move forward.

Here’s hoping for a few unseasonably warm days so those who wish to can work on their uninterrupted tan lines one more time without being hit with a ticket or jail time.

Late Nov. 2012 Gay musicians busking on the corner of 18th & Castro to appreciate crowds.

Late Nov. 2012 Gay musicians busking on the corner of 18th & Castro to appreciate crowds.

Board of Supervisors narrowly approve city-wide ban on nudity in preliminary 6-5 vote

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Supervisor Scott Wiener talks to the media about nudity ban via SFist

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors narrowly approved Supervisor Scott Wiener’s city-wide ban on nudity in a 6-5 preliminary vote today.

Supervisors in opposition to Wieners city-wide nudity ban said that the ban would draw on limited police resources and eat away at the city’s reputation for tolerance. Supervisor John Avalos of District 11 said that he was voting against the measure because he was, “concerned about civil liberties, about free speech, about changing San Francisco’s style and how we are as a city.”

The ban amends the San Francisco Police Code by adding Section 154 to prohibit nudity on public streets, sidewalks, street medians, parklets, and plazas, and on public transit vehicles, stations, platforms, and stops, except as part of permitted parades, fairs, and festivals. Violations of the ban would risk a $100 fine, repeat violations could lead to a $500 fine and a year in jail.

While the ban makes exceptions for events like Folsom Street Fair and Pride, it does not allow for your average, run-of-the-mill, kinky community fundraisers or parties.

Last week, nudists retained attorney Christina DiEdoardo to file a class-action lawsuit against the city in the case the nudity ban passed citing that a ban would “infringe on the nudists’ right to free speech.”

A final vote on the ban is expected to come next week.

Activist Protest Removal of Public Benches from Harvey Milk Plaza

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BEFORE

AFTER

 

 

 

 

 

 

About fifty activist gathered at Harvey Milk Plaza this afternoon to voice their anger and objections of the unilateral decision removing public bench seating from Milk Plaza by Community Benefit District (CBD) with the hearty support of the Merchants of Upper Market Castro (MUMC) and Supervisor Scott Weiner.

The November 2nd removal was a response to what some in the community deemed, ‘an undesirable, vagrant, homeless element’, who often used the open to the public benches. The decision to pull the seating was never brought to the greater community for input. No open to all, town hall, styled meetings were held to look for alternative solutions or broached to our knowledge. Neither were local groups who work with many of the affected communities, many of which endorsed todays action, consulted.

Proportionally a large number of the homeless are LGBTQ youth who often sought refuge within the confines of the Castro after getting less than hospitable welcomes in other parts of the City. The benches are public space, open to all, and their removal without the consultation of that public had led to the call for today’s protest to take back the space and return it to ‘all the public no matter who they were, how much money they had, with a home or without’ as one protestor commented.

In a direct action of civil disobedience protestors produced a hand made bench and installed it where the others had been. They also challenged the much hated and failed, ‘No Sit/No Lie’ San Francisco ordinance by sitting on the ground and in chairs they’d brought with them. Symbolically they drew a ‘speaker’s box’ on the bricked plaza and asked people to testify as to why they were opposed to the benches removal. Slain Sup. Harvey Milk, for whom the plaza is dedicated to, often would bring a box to the same location, clamber atop it and make speeches about Queer rights, building bridges with other communities and standing up for the downtrodden to the passing crowds when he was known as ‘The Mayor of Castro Street’.

Today’s demonstration had a diverse, multi-generational participants from members of organized labor, local organizations, affinity groups, non-profits, as well members of the local homeless community. A wide variety of these and other groups/organizations endorsed the action including: LYRIC, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Interesting Times Gang, LAGAI-Queer Insurrection, Saint James Infirmary, Senior & Disability Action, ACT UP/SF, and Queers Undermining Israeli Terror (QUIT), Occupy Bernal and Occupy the Auctions. Several radio stations, journalists and ABC 7 were on hand to document the peaceful event.

More actions are in the works according to organizers. Stay tuned for developments.

BEFORE
AFTER
Symbolic chalk soap box to honor Harvey Milk and his practice of using the Plaza to make political points.
ACT UP/SF’s Dean Oullette helps unload newly constructed public bench
Local AIDS/Occupy activist , Craig Rouskey, installs a new public bench at HM Plaza
Craig Rouskey puts the finishing touches on the new, illegal bench at HM Plaza
Activist Craig Rouskey, Carmen Simon enjoy the new illegal bench at Harvey Milk Plaza while longtime LGBT organzier, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, looks on.
Teresa, a Senior Activist, demands the public benches be returned.

RIP News Rack #133. You will not be missed.

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Original Photo lifted from The Petrelis Files

Thanks to the work of local merchants, the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, and local activists working together the news rack located in front of the entrance to the Castro MUNI station will be removed Monday at 6:30AM. Those fond of these news racks should not fret as there is another news rack not but 10 feet away!

Pedestal mounted news racks like this are all over the city and are pretty much useless as they remain unstocked and take up valuable public sidewalk space.

Hopefully we’ll see more of the buggers taken out soon!